10-14-2017, 05:14 AM
I previously posted about a front end vibration problem with my 2017 EX. The original dealer I took it to TWICE, whom I purchased the bike from new out of the crate, and does not have a Honda trained and certified mechanic, tried to make the symptom go away without fixing the problem and basically told me I was imagining the problem. You can read back through my original thread if you want to see what they did, or said they did. Lesson learned number one: use a dealer that has a Honda factory trained and certified mechanic. I took my bike to a second dealer that has a factory trained mechanic. The standard CB1100 has cast wheels, so a front end vibration problem is probably going to be caused by an improperly mounted tire, tire out of round and/or flat spot/s, wheel assembly out of balance, defective or damaged front wheel bearing from over torque of the front axle bolt during set up, steering head bearings improperly torqued, or a combination. That said, my EX has spoke wheels, so wheel out of true or out of round is thrown into the mix of possibilities. This second dealer pulled my front wheel and put the wheel assembly on a high speed wheel balancing machine. The assembly was found to be out of round, so next the tire was removed, and the rim spun at speed without tire. The rim was out of round by roughly 1/8" whereas spec run out is about 1mm! To my knowledge all spoke rims are hand trued, as I do not know of any machine that will true a spoke rim. At the moment, I do not know if Honda will tell the dealer to true the rim, or authorize a new rim. I told the dealer that after all I had been through with a brand new bike, I wanted a new rim, but we shall see. In any case it has been my experience over all the years, that Honda motorcycles just do not have any front end vibration, and if vibration ( some have described it as a rhythmic vibration ) is felt, something is wrong that needs to be addressed, and should be addressed before the factory warranty expires. For clarification, I am not talking about a slight buzz felt in the grips, I am talking about an up/down front end vibration, and in my case was enough to shake my arms at 40 mph.